a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microscope, specifically to that allowing one to observe a sample under centrifugal force.
b) Description of the Related Art
There are several types of centrifuge microscopes, which allow observation of a sample under centrifugal force. A stroboscopic centrifuge microscope is one of these types (Refer to Japanese Patent Preliminary Publication No. Sho 63-250615). In this type of centrifuge microscope, a sample chamber is arranged on a rotary disk such as to cross the optical axis of an objective lens in accordance with the rotation of the rotary disk. The microscope causes a pulse-emitting light source to emit pulsed light of very short duration at instants when the sample is carried in front of the objective lens by controlling the timing of the flashes given off by the light source based only on the position of the sample chamber as detected during the rotation of the disk, so that a still image of the sample is observed in spite of the revolving movement of the sample chamber.
In this type of centrifuge microscope, however, the timing of pulse emission can vary each time the sample is carried in front of the objective lens because of the jitter in the pulse-emitting light source, and thus the position of the image in the visual field does not remain stationary, which causes the image to blur and thus is unfavorable. Furthermore, since the emission timing is controlled relying only on positional detection of the sample chamber arranged on the disk, the emission of pulsed light is not completely synchronized with the event of the sample coming in front of the objective lens when the rotational speed of the disk is being changed, and precludes observation during such changes.